


Snowballs and Santa Clause

by writerwisegirl



Series: In a hole in the ground.... [4]
Category: Black Widow (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Santa Clause
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 12:43:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16661349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerwisegirl/pseuds/writerwisegirl
Summary: Clint teaches Natasha about Christmas.Can be read alone but makes more sense as a part of the series.





	Snowballs and Santa Clause

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting during the day, what do you know! And, to quote my friend KC, "oh wow, liz writes fluff. can you bELiEvE"

Snow was something that Natasha was used to. What she wasn’t used to was Clint's reaction to snow. In the Red Room snow was just another part of life. It snowed in the winter and it rained in the spring, but it wasn’t particularly exciting. Clint, however, seemed to think it was. The first time it snowed after she defected and joined SHIELD with him, he actually called in and asked for the day off. And, to her surprise, they said yes. Apparently, this was a common thing. Every year, the first day it snowed, Clint would call in and ask for the day off. Natasha wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t feel like asking. But, given that she wasn’t allowed at SHIELD without Clint yet, it meant that she had the day off too. So when Clint grabbed her hand and started trying to drag her out of the apartment, she was understandably confused. 

“Where are we going?” She asked, “I thought we had the day off?”

“Oh, we do! And it’s snowing, so that means it’s time to go get Christmas decorations!” At this Natasha frowned a little bit, she didn’t know much about Christmas, other than that it existed. 

“Sounds good.” She said. Sure, she might not know much about it, but that didn’t mean that she would admit it. She was the Black Widow, and the Black Widow didn’t show weakness. So she followed Clint out the door, remembering to grab a jacket (She hadn’t taken one a few weeks ago, and according to Clint, just because she was capable of ignoring the cold didn’t mean she had to.) 

 

**********

 

They were several stores in before Clint noticed that she was wasn’t really expressing an opinion, just agreeing with whatever he said. It was another several stores before he got up the courage to ask her about it. (What? Just because they weren’t enemies anymore didn’t mean she wasn’t scary!) 

They were in Macy’s when he finally said something.

“Hey, Tasha?” He asked, “How come you aren’t picking anything out? This is your first Christmas here, I want it to be special.” He received only a strange look in return, and it was several minutes before she said anything. 

“This isn’t just my first Christmas here Clint.” She said quietly, “It’s my first Christmas, period.” She almost ran into Clint when he stopped in his tracks and turned around to stare at her. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I should have known that.” He admitted. “Look, Tash, I know you don’t like not knowing things, so I’m happy to tell you all about Christmas if you want.” He offered. When Natasha gave a hesitant nod he smiled at her. “Alright. Let’s take this stuff home, and then we can get some hot chocolate and I’ll answer all your questions.”

 

************

An hour later they were in downtown DC, holding hot chocolate and watching people ice skating. They had claimed a bench near the rink and Clint patiently explaining Christmas to Natasha. “And then there’s Santa,” He was saying, “He flies around the world and delivers presents to everyone.” 

Natasha frowned. “He delivers presents to everyone in one night?” She asked, “That sounds difficult.” 

“Well, yeah, but he has a magic flying sleigh.” He said with a smile. Natasha nodded as if that answered everything. Then she frowned again.

“Why didn’t he come to the Red Room?” She asked quietly, setting Clint’s mind racing as he tried to think of a reasonable explanation. (Some people would think he was being cruel, letting her believe in Santa, but Natasha had never had a childhood, and she deserved this, dammit.) It only took him a few seconds before he had an answer.

“Well, see usually parents send Santa a letter and when their baby is born, so that he knows about them. The Red Room probably didn’t tell him about you.” Once again Natasha gave a decisive nod, clearly happy with his answer. 

“Can we tell him about me this year?” She asked quietly, and it broke Clint’s heart a little, but he pasted on a smile as he answered. 

“Of course we can Tasha.” That got what had to be the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face. “Now, I have a very important question for you -- have you ever had a snowball fight?” When she shook her head, Clint grinned. “Oh, you’re going to love this.”

 

*********

 

They returned home a few hours later, both red-faced and out of breath from laughing. Their snowball fight had escalated until there were several dozen people playing, though the real fight was still between Nat and Clint, who were both determined to destroy the other. Natasha collapsed happily onto the couch in their living room, tired but happy, a new feeling for her. 

“Thank you.” She said quietly to Clint. “I’ve never done anything like that before. It was….fun.” Clint smiled at her from his seat in a chair opposite the couch.

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.” He told her. “Now come on, we should go to bed. And tomorrow we can send a letter to Santa.” The smile he got in response was one of the best things he had ever seen. 

 

*********

 

The next day Clint woke up to see Natasha standing at the end of his bed, absolutely silent. He jerked upright quickly, drawing his gun before realizing it was her. 

“Jesus, Nat! You scared me!” He said, slowly relaxing. “How long have been there?” 

“One hour, 23 minutes,” Natasha replied. “I didn’t want to wake you up, but you said we could tell Santa about me today.” She reminded him as she climbed onto his bed.

“I did say that,” Clint responded with a smile. She looked like a kid, sitting at the end of his bed, clearly wanting him to get up so he could help her write to Santa. “Let me wake up for a minute okay?” Natasha gave him another small smile before climbing off his bed and heading into the living room. He watched her go happily, just glad that he had been able to make her happy for what might have been one of the first times in her life. When he got into the living room it was to find Natasha sitting cross-legged on the couch with a pen and paper sitting on the coffee table in front of her. He gave her a lopsided smile and plopped down next to her. 

“So, what do you want to say?” He asked.

“How should I know? You’re the one who’s done this before.” Natasha reminded him. 

“Right, of course, well I suppose we should start with an introduction.” He took to the pen and paper and began writing.

 

**********

 

Half an hour later they had what Clint thought to be an excellent letter, thoroughly explaining why Natasha had not been about to participate in Christmas before now but also expressing how much she would love to be able to do so now. Natasha was clearly very proud of herself as the put a stamp on the letter and placed in the mailbox, waiting to be picked up the mailman. To his surprise, Natasha turned to him once they had closed the door and hugged him tentatively. Clint may not have known it, but it was her first hug.

  
  
  
_ It was a Hobbit hole, _

**Author's Note:**

> I thrive on comments


End file.
